Bill awaiting governor's signature sends cash to environmental fund

Published 11:35 pm, Friday, June 22, 2012

ALBANY — Some of the nickels from bottles not returned for the deposit will wind up in a special state environmental fund, under a bill adopted late Thursday by state lawmakers.

Still requiring a signature from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to become law, the measure would use some of the unclaimed deposits — which total about $115 million a year — for the Environmental Protection Fund, which benefits state parks, state forests, farmland preservation, recycling, waterfront revitalization, landfill closures and other initiatives.

Under the measure, $10 million from unclaimed deposits would be added to the fund next year. That would increase to $20 million in 2014, $30 million in 2015, $40 million in 2016, $50 million in 2017, and $56 million in 2018.

For the past two years, the fund as been at $134 million, which was whittled down significantly during the state's fiscal problems. The fund was at $250 million as recently as 2008.

Environmental groups welcomed the bill. Friends of New York's Environment, a broad partnership of more than 100 environmental, conservation, agricultural, recreational and urban groups, urged the governor to sign it.

"It means substantial increases in EPF programs such as municipal parks, waterfront revitalization, open space land acquisition, and water quality improvement," said Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, a Long Island Democrat who heads the chamber's Environmental Conservation Committee. "This increase in funding is accomplished without raising a single tax or fee."